The Girl with the Dark Blonde Hair
by Icewine Rose
Summary: It's been about half a year since Sebastian and Miranda have seen each other. Sebastian comes to visit her, but Troll are attacking the house again, and mortally wound him! Will they find the girl in their mom's pic b4 it's too late? R&R please!
1. Chapter 1: Sebastian

**Chapter I**

**Sebastian**

_I wonder if Miranda even remembers me. _Sebastian thought, staring out to the sea.

"Are you all right? Sebastian?" Malachai asked, making Sebastian jump. "Oh, f-fine. I'm O.K.," he answered. Malachai eyed him suspiciously, taking a small step back. "Really, I'm fine." Sebastian said, turning to look at him; his captain was smiling.

"You know, Sebastian," he said, a playful glint in his eye. Sebastian turned back to the sea. "I think that you're thinking about Miranda again. I also think that the Wonderlab shouldn't just sit around gathering dust." Sebastian perked up a bit. "Do you want to try it? Just to see if it works, of course."

Sebastian's expression changed from it's original depressed to hopeful. Extremely hopeful. He spun around to Malachai, grabbing his shoulders with eagerness. "Could we?" he asked, barely able to get the words out.

Malachai, who was grinning and nodding, answered, "I'll go fire it up."


	2. Chapter 2: Miranda

**Chapter II**

**Miranda**

_Oh, Sebastian..._ Miranda thought, running her free finger along his picture of the menagerie of people and creatures they met on their adventure two years ago. Suddenly, she heard someone moving outside her door. She quickly turned off the flashlight. Throwing off the heavy quilt that was on her head like a tent and flopping backwards onto the bed, Miranda tried to look as convincingly as possible that she was asleep.

The door swung open slowly, as she held her breath. _Don't be Dad! Don't be Dad..._

"Miranda?"

It was her younger sister, Cassie. "I know your awake," she said, walking over to her bed.

"What are you doing with Mom's portfolio?" she asked as Miranda turned her flashlight back on.

"Nothing..." she muttered, stuffing the picture back in the envelope.

"You were looking at Sebastian again weren't you? And you used to tell me that _**I**_ lived in that book before." Cassie said playfully, and a bit louder than necessary.

"Shhh! You wanna wake up Dad?" Miranda hissed, making Cassie laugh quietly. "Oh, sorry. I almost forgot that Dad wants you to forget him and live in this world, not in the pictures," she said, turning on a lamp.

"It's not fair. He let you before. And not everyone finds their girlfriend in duplicate in this world." Miranda snarled, pouting.

"One would think that you wanted your boyfriend, not girlfriend." Cassie teased.

"You knew what I meant!"

"Well... I wonder if he's found her yet."

"Look, that picture isn't necessarily by Mom."

"You know perfectly well it is!" Cassie retorted. "Two years ago, right after our little adventure, Dad found that picture of Sebastian holding hands with a blonde elf girl who had a rather nasty scar on her left cheek."

"Mom might have been bored, or something. No way Sebastian would do that to me." Miranda persisted, but that horrid feeling called doubt began to creep up to her again.

But just then, there was a tapping at her window. Both she and Cassie jumped. A cloaked figure was hanging by a rope right in front of Miranda's window.


	3. Chapter 3: Sebastian

**Chapter III**

**Sebastian**

_Admit it to yourself! _Sebastian thought, _You have no idea where you are going! Where is her house? _

A quiet rustle in the bushes next to him made him jump. "W-w-who's there?" he trembled. After remaining there for about five minutes, he was sure that whatever made the noise was now long gone, so he continued on his way.

He finally found Miranda's house. As he was running over, he realized that he needed some pebbles. _How else will I get her attention?_

Once he found a few small stones, he ran over to her window and saw someone in a black hooded cloak, pulling himself up by a rope. Backing up slightly, Sebastian saw that who ever it was, was climbing to Miranda's window!

_Oh no! Trolls! _he thought, running to the rope and beginning to climb up.

Yet when he got up just past the first story, the cloaked figure looked down, and seeing him, swung up into another open window. Then, it poked its upper body out of the window again, now holding a knife,. As soon as Sebastian saw this, he tried to scrabble down from his height, but the figure had already cut through the rope.


	4. Chapter 4: Miranda

**Chapter IV**

**Miranda**

The two girls heard a crash out side a few seconds after the cloaked figure disappeared.

"What was that?" Miranda whispered as Cassie jumped up and sprinted to the window. Opening it, she looked up.

"Ow!" a pebble had suddenly hit Cassie in the side of the head. Hard. "What the-" Looking down, she gasped and put her hand to her mouth.

"What is it?" Miranda asked, forgetting to be quiet. Jumping off the bed, she came to the window and looked down at the lawn.

She gasped loudly, trying to hide her tears. _Oh no! No, no! _Right below her window, unconscious, with a length of rope spread across him, was...

"_Sebastian!_"

"Yes, he took a rather nasty fall from the rope that we put up. The idiot was trying to climb up after me. Had to cut him down."

The girls spun around, and standing right there in their door way was Skotos. "Oh look. Our witches who brought back the dragon. I see you both care for the elf down there. Why not join him?"

But before he even took a step into Miranda's bedroom, a thin fencing sword came down on his left shoulder from off to the right side of the doorway, the holder unseen.

"Damn you, Aisling! But I'll be back!" Skotos shouted, then suddenly disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Right after Skotos disappeared, Alan Aisling, their father, came into the doorway, wearing his pajamas, holding a fencing sword, now with a small splotch of blood on the tip.

"Are you girls all right?" he asked worried. "I heard you two talking, but couldn't understand what."

"Dad," Miranda sobbed, some tears trickling down her cheek. "He hurt Sebastian. Maybe killed him." Cassie finished for her, pointing to the window, then cast a sympathetic glance towards her.

_Sometimes I don't think that I deserve Cassie for a sister. I would never tell her that out loud though!_

"What?" his father said, surprised. As he strode over to the window, Miranda walked over to her bed and sat down, shaking all over. She heard her father gasp.

"Oh my God! Cassie, Miranda. I'll need your help bringing him inside." he said, commanding. "Dad, I think he came here on the _Unicorn_. Overon and Titania might be more help than doctors here." Cassie suggested, trying not to sound shaken up.

_Sebastian! Oh my God! Oh. My. God._

"Good suggestion, Cassie. Miranda, come on. I know what you're feeling, but sitting there won't help anyone. Come on." Alan said, walking over to Miranda's bed. "Come on. The sooner we get to help, the better."


	5. Chapter 5: Malachai

**Chapter V**

**Malachai**

_Sebastian should be back by now. What's keeping him? _Malachai thought, looking out at the dock, watching for Sebastian to come back. _I doubt that Trolls came again like last time. But, then again, nothing's impossible. _

"Malachai!" Alan was calling him, holding Sebastian, followed by Miranda and Cassie. "Malachai! Come quick! We need your help!" _How on Earth? _"What happened?" he asked, running over to help Alan bring Sebastian onboard.

"No time now. Up." he grunted, as they carefully carried Sebastian over the railing of the ship. "I'll explain later. Where can we put him until we can find some help?" "I think that the best place would be his cabin." Malachai said, as he gave Sebastian back to Alan. "Follow me. I'll show you where it is."

Cassie opened the door to the impossibly large hallway and held it open for Alan as he cautiously carried Sebastian down into his room. Malachai looked over at Miranda and could see the tear stains on her cheeks, though no more were falling. _I wonder if she still cares about him like he did for her. Did she have anything to do with Sebastian's injury? Are those tears of guilt or concern...or both? _

Yet, in the midst of all this, something caught his attention in the corner of his eye. _Did I just see something sprint from the pier to the _Unicorn_? Nah, just me being jumpy. _Shaking his head, Malachai then walked into the hallway.


	6. Chapter 6: Cassie

**Chapter VI**

**Cassie**

"Is he going to be all right?" Cassie asked as Malachai looked Sebastian over. "Skotos wasn't kidding when he said he took a 'nasty fall'. Unless we can get help soon, I'm afraid that..." Malachai's voice trailed off as Miranda got up from her chair at the other side of the room and stormed out, looking both sad, angry, and guilty.

_I wonder why Miranda feels so guilty about this. I know that it's terrible and everything to have him probably terminally hurt, but it wasn't her fault. _

"Is there anything that you can do now, Malachai? Until we can get more professional help?" her Dad asked, sounding as he had when Malachai was turned into stone. "I can get him awake, but it will hurt him a lot. It will take a while to get to the healer, or anyone else for that matter, in the Land of Imagination from where we left." he answered, and Alan sighed.

"I think that he will want that though," he added, making both Alan and Cassie to look up at him in surprise. "The only reason that him, me, or even this ship are back in your world is that he wanted to see Miranda. I'm not going to guarantee anything, but he will be able to talk to her, even if he dies for it. As I said, he probably will want that than to just dying in his sleep and never seeing her again."

Alan sat down in his chair next to Sebastian's bed, his hands clasped and covering his mouth, staying quiet while Cassie looked around Sebastian's room. His room had a similar set up to the room that she and Miranda had stayed in during their last voyage, only there was only one bed and closet, both on the right side of the room.

_That's funny. _Cassie thought. _Miranda's bed was on the right side. _Walking to the foot of the bed, Cassie saw a dirty nameplate screwed onto the bed. It read _'Miranda.' So this __**is**__ our old room, and he really still is in love with her. I guess that he hasn't met the dark haired girl yet. I wonder if they were actually in love like Miranda and Sebastian are now, or if it's something else..._

"I've made my decision." Alan said, making Cassie jump and bang her knee on the corner of the bed. _Ow! _

"Malachai," he said, taking a deep breath. "go ahead and wake him up. I think you're right, that he probably would want this."

"Okay sir. Do you want me to fire up the Wonderlab first?"

"No, you do that after you wake him up."

Malachai then turned to Cassie, his expression unreadable. "Would you go get Miranda? In this particular circumstance of our version of 'first aid', I need to be here constantly for it to work. And I think that both Miranda and Sebastian want to see each other, so..." Cassie then realized that Malachai was trying to hide the sadness and worry from surfacing on his face. Cassie took his hand gently and saw that it was shaking.

"I'll go get her now. It'll work out, don't worry." she said, almost in a whisper. Malachai looked up, slightly surprised, and gave a feeble attempt at a smile. Cassie smiled weakly back then scampered off to the deck to get her sister.


	7. Chapter 7: Miranda

**Chapter VII**

**Miranda**

_So he's probably _not _going to be okay. Just wishing for something doesn't always give you what you want then. _She felt like throwing something out to sea. What she wanted to throw was Skotos, but as he was unavailable, (and probably wouldn't agree with being thrown overboard,) she walked along the deck, looking for something that wasn't important that she could throw. _This? No. This? Uh-uh. Aha!_ She found a small pebble that was on the deck. She tried to pick it up, but as soon as she got a good grip, something pulled it away, as if someone were controlling it by a string. "Hey," she said, kind of annoyed. She stayed crouched down, and chased after it, as it only went an arm's length away. She put her hand out to snatch it, but it jumped away again. "Hey!" she called, actually pissed off now. _Haven't I put up with enough today? Now a stupid pebble is running away from me! _"Does nothing that isn't hurt or in danger like me-oof!" She ran right into someone wearing _yellow and blue boots? _As her eyesight ran slowly up the figure she had bumped into, she discovered that whoever it was, wasn't Cassie, Malachai, Alan, or Sebastian. It was a girl, who appeared about her age, with pointed ears that peaked out in front of her two waist-length braids that hung down in front of her. Miranda jumped back however, when she saw the left side of the girl's face. It held a long pale-brown scar from her forehead down to her jaw line.

_"You know, I felt the same exact way for the longest time."_

Miranda fell over completely. The last time she had heard anyone talk like this, was when Titania had told her _"Oh, such pain," _back when they first started going on any adventure.

Miranda staggered up, as the girl picked up the pebble and clasped it around her neck on the invisible thread, like a necklace. "Who are you and what do you want?" she hissed, not trusting this mysterious girl.

"Miranda?" Cassie looked in surprise at the mystery girl seemingly towering over her older sister.


End file.
